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[278]
Now about this time there was a sedition between the Jews and the
Greeks, at the city of Alexandria; for when Caius was dead, the nation
of the Jews, which had been very much mortified under the reign of Caius,
and reduced to very great distress by the people of Alexandria, recovered
itself, and immediately took up their arms to fight for themselves. So
Claudius sent an order to the president of Egypt to quiet that tumult;
he also sent an edict, at the requests of king Agrippa and king Herod,
both to Alexandria and to Syria, whose contents were as follows: "Tiberius
Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, high priest, and tribune of the people,
ordains thus: Since I am assured that the Jews of Alexandria, called Alexandrians,
have been joint inhabitants in the earliest times with the Alexandrians,
and have obtained from their kings equal privileges with them, as is evident
by the public records that are in their possession, and the edicts themselves;
and that after Alexandria had been subjected to our empire by Augustus,
their rights and privileges have been preserved by those presidents who
have at divers times been sent thither; and that no dispute had been raised
about those rights and privileges, even when Aquila was governor of Alexandria;
and that when the Jewish ethnarch was dead, Augustus did not prohibit the
making such ethnarchs, as willing that all men should be so subject [to
the Romans] as to continue in the observation of their own customs, and
not be forced to transgress the ancient rules of their own country religion;
but that, in the time of Caius, the Alexandrians became insolent towards
the Jews that were among them, which Caius, out of his great madness and
want of understanding, reduced the nation of the Jews very low, because
they would not transgress the religious worship of their country, and call
him a god: I will therefore that the nation of the Jews be not deprived
of their rights and privileges, on account of the madness of Caius; but
that those rights and privileges which they formerly enjoyed be preserved
to them, and that they may continue in their own customs. And I charge
both parties to take very great care that no troubles may arise after the
promulgation of this edict."

Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.

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